The picture I chose is of Wonder Woman, a second favorite.
I watched ‘Wonder Woman’ (starring Lynda Carter) a lot as a child. I loved the way her honesty lasso worked, her ability to fend off bullets with her wrist guards, and the way she could spin her way into her costume.
My first favorite hero was the ‘Bionic Woman’. Many of you may remember the ‘6 Million Dollar Man’. As many of us who grew up in the 80’s remember, he had a feminine cohort, the ‘Bionic Woman’.
Jamie (the Bionic Woman) had bionic hearing, with a device in her ear to let her hear things she normally would not have heard. I believe she also had bionic legs, which allowed her to run very quickly. She also, as any strong female character starring in a TV show about solving crimes does, had an uncanny ability to fight crimes using her bionic skills.
I was sold.
I had the coloring book (I did a lot of coloring as a child), and imagined that I too had bionic hearing. My ligaments are a little unreliable these days, so that would leg strength would also help me quite a bit. Think how FAST I would be. 🙂
So, she was my hero because of her strength, both physical and mental, and her tenacity. She also seemed fun and witty, two characteristics I respect in a person.
My children have their own childhood heroes. One of my sons loves Spider-Man, but his first real hero was Night Crawler, from the X-Men. Night crawler went everywhere with him. He is blue, and can teleport. He also flies a little under the radar sometimes, but can be very in the spotlight due to his blue skin.
My other son was smitten with Sponge-Bob. He had Sponge Bob everything. Sponge-Bob pajamas, shirts, a ‘uniform’ (that included a t-shirt, shorts, and a Hawaiian style shirt). He had a giant Sponge-Bob image painted onto his wall.
Although I know some parents find Sponge-Bob appropriate, my kids are the age where Sponge-Bob came to be. Sponge-Bob loving son really enjoyed the humor in the character. All of us in the house had characters we chose to be while we played ‘Sponge-Bob Life’.
I generally liked to be Sandy, the squirrel, because I generally went for the female character. Sometimes though, I chose Plankton, the evil genius who frequently gets stepped on. Another favorite for me to choose was Squidward, the clarinet player.
I recently asked my husband about his childhood hero. Luke Skywalker wins the prize on that one. Luke is a hero who is really good at flying a plane, and one who also has a great amount of integrity.
This writing prompt helped me to think about my heroes, both then and now. I’d be wrong if I didn’t mention a childhood babysitter who spent a lot of times with my siblings and me.
She played alto sax, which helped inspire me to play my instrument of choice. She is now the mother of 6 children.
She inspired creativity in us. We played a made up game we called ‘Diamonds’. I don’t remember the rules, but I do remember Ann.
I hope you all have heroes, both as children and now. I know I do.